M.I.Y.O Monday: What Is Your Favorite Pork Dish?

Note: M.I.Y.O. Monday stands for Make It Your Own Monday, a question thrown out to DCF readers every Monday to jumpstart the week with lively interaction. I also welcome questions and suggestions for future MIYO Mondays. Email me.

An acquaintance from way back has come back into my life and the process of getting to know each other again on a more mature level is thrilling. During one of our conversations, she mentions that she’s converted to Islam and thus, doesn’t eat pork. This is familiar to me. I grew up in Indonesia where the population is almost 90% Muslim, and waking up to chants and wails from the nearby mosque was routine. I also had friends, devout Muslims who shunned pork and fasted during Ramadan. It was this latter concept of fasting from sunrise to sunset that – as a young girl then – fascinated me.

But, as I sit and listen to my friend talk about her faith and her food, the restaurants she can eat in, and how they must serve halal cuisine, I find myself longing – obscenely so – for pork. I consider myself generally accepting of all beliefs but gosh darn it, I’m ashamed to be thinking such lurid, porky thoughts in front of a Muslim. I can only hope she can’t read my mind!

That night for dinner, I have what is currently, my favorite pork dish. I love crispy pata, can eat embarrassing amounts of lechon, and I admit to an implacable attraction to pork belly. For right now however, I profess undying devotion to the Peppered Pork Chop at Bistro Mondo.

I first had this dish almost a year ago on a cool, rainy evening. The restaurant is known for its wood-fired pizza which is quite good, thin-crusted and with the requisite char. The pastas and desserts are passable but it’s the pork chop that remains ingrained in memory. A bone-in chop from the shoulder, it possesses presence when presented at table. Plated with precision, it rests on a scalloped wave of garlic-smashed potatoes and a bevy of grilled veggies.

The same Peppered Pork Chop, one year ago. The fancifully fashioned mashed potatoes are as delightful to eat as they are to look at.

Pebbled with peppercorns, slicing into the pork chop yields steam and moist meat. First, there’s fat and it should be eaten right away. Masterfully grilled, my teeth crunch down onto a crust of fat, it implodes with smoke then oozes oil. Knees weaken, back goes limp, eyes close. The meat itself is just shy of being tough. Tightly-grained and itself devoid of fat, its juiciness is amplified even more when spooned with Chef Steven Scudder’s signature sauce. A magnificent example of the marriage between red wine and brown stock, it’s a boiling down of two components whose interaction with heat and time produces a sauce that demonstrates remarkable flavor. A pork chop couldn’t ask for a better partner.

From a home-cooking perspective, my favorite would have to be grilled liempo. Simply salted and allowed to sit over very hot coals before being sliced, it is best bathed in spicy sinamak and eaten with a mound of rice. Ensaladang Pinoy optional but recommended. =)

I am not much of a “pork-eater” but when my Mom cooks Sinigang na Baboy complete with all the veggies with a kick of the ‘green sili’, man! Nothing beats home dishes! And I must include Crispy Pata from Krazy Garlic and Pork Ribs from S&R. It’s just gooooood. 🙂

Well, I haven’t tried much yet really. Their bestseller “Garlicky Crispy Pata” is really good. It was marinated with garlic, and my favorite part is the baked garlic on the side where you can scoop the soft/mashed garlic and spread it on your crispy balat, mmmm just good. What I love also is their Harakiri Rice although garlic wasn’t the star. And for dessert? They have this Crema Catalana, which is a spanish creme brulee with GARLIC on top. Yes. Almost tastes like candy. It was surprisingly good! 🙂

My favorite pork dish is Igado, an Ilocano dish. In our province, the recipe (and taste) varies a bit, depending on the cook’s preference (ussually according to a family recipe),, but they all taste good to me–a complex mix of pork and liver, mixed with vinegar and soy sauce, with carrots, bell pepper ang green peas for color, as well as a dash of ground pepper and a few pieces of oregano leaves to spice it up a bit. It just brings back warm childhood memories and I can never have enough of it!

I can be fiercely loyal to those I love, food included; to answer this question is like asking who’s my favorite parent, my favorite relative, my favorite friend — you love them all, but is all love equal?

I will answer this with much apologies to all other pork dishes.

The answer is: dinuguan. Strong and assertive, it boldly declares its presence in your mouth! I love it with puto and rice; a different partner for a different experience, one’s for merienda, the other for a meal.

I grew up in a family who is not that fond of pork. That’s why whenever I get a chance to eat pork outside our home, my favorite would be the triple threat of spicy Cebu lechon, Ilocos bagnet and Bicol Express. Just the thought alone brings memories of a happy stomach (and heart attacks waiting to happen). 😀

My photo of the Laing Lechon notwithstanding, I’m probably one of the rare Pinoys who’s not addicted to pork. (GASP! And as an aside, I’m also one of the few who doesn’t like Max’s. DOUBLE GASP! ;-)) Having said that, I’ve always said that I could live without red meat EXCEPT bacon and sausages, most especially chorizo and longganisang Lucban. Have you tried the chorizo at Kublai’s? My favorite way is served on the sizzling plate, then I ask them to put an egg on top. Mixed up and eaten with garlic rice, it’s immediately satisfying on all fronts.

Katrina-
Though you and I bow at the temple of all things sweet, I, for one, can live without bacon and sausages but please, PLEASE give me my red meat. Steak is my favorite food in the world, as if you didn’t already know :p

Pork dishes that I love: 1. Crispy Pata (my favorite, ever since I was a kid!)
2. Grilled Liempo or the ones sold at any Lechon Manok stalls just gives me a porky high w/ the free sarsa and atchara
3. Pork Ribs sinigang w/ mashed gabi for that thick sour broth
4. Bagnet w/ bagoong (since I am an Ilocana,can’t enjoy this dish w/out the famous KBL w/c stands for KAMATIS,BAGOONG and LASUNA(shallots) — the perfect trio for that perfect crispy liempo)
5. Longganisa from any part or province in Philippines (Vigan,Lucban, Baguio,etc.) is a welcome viand for me w/ Banana Ketchup and rice
6. Paksiw na Pata w/ dried banana blossoms
7. Dinakadakan (an Ilocano dish, boiled pig’s ears and head then charbroiled, sliced thinly or thickly depends on your preference w/ pig’s brain mashed w/ vinegar, salt and pepper, chili if you prefer it spicy and sliced onions. The pig’s brain makes it very tasty w/ some sort of “mayo-like” dressing, as others thought this Ilocano dish is with mayonnaise for that whitish sauce)
8. Lechon — the star of any occasion, especially the belly part where all the spices were concentrated w/ the sarsa, the day after, we fry it up ’til crisp and again a perfect pairing w/ Bagoong and calamansi and Garlic Rice! whew! Heart attack… but I say, it’s all worth the cholesterol. 🙂
And the list just goes on and on… 🙂

I don’t touch beef but can’t resist pork…so is that balancd, or I am just being Filipino?

Just had Crispy Pata at Abe with friends, how’s that for Mon nite indulgence! Also succulent are the Pork Belly (roasted) at Italianni’s and the Pork chop at 2nds (at the Fort).

But the all time winner is Jamie Oliver’s roasted pork belly recipe…every time I make this, the whole family (and that includes usually critical folks ha) fights over the crackling, the laman, and all else. They are amazed i am able to create that from my oven! Well worth the trouble!

Hello, Maria!
I like your idea of a Monday night indulgence. A bang-up way to start the week, I say! Glad you mentioned Jamie Oliver’s pork belly recipe. Been meaning to try it but wasn’t sure. Now, all doubts are erased and I’ve put that recipe at the head of my to-cook-ASAP list. “)

Something from home, it’s gotta be paksiw na pata. Melt-in-your-mouth goodness of friggin’ pork, the tendon and fat are the best parts.
Also, another pata dish from a take-out stall in Cavite, Aling Remy’s crispy pata. I’d eat that with palabok which I buy from another place.
Yes, I love pata, oh so much. Hihi

hands down, my answer would be pork adobo, prepared either by my dad or my husband, never dry as i like my rice to be drenched with the sauce. this is my most favorite dish and even after so many attempts, i can never cook this quite right.

btw, i recently tried this place near my office called harvest- they had a dish- baked lechon belly, or something to that effect.. SO GOOD! that and their laing shrimp pizza- sounds nasty but so good. try it out! i dont know the exact address but its where the old alexandre used to be in fort.

I know it’s past Monday but I just need to extol the virtues of my mom’s braised pork belly humba. It’s Chinese-style adobo, an interplay of sweet, salty, sticky, garlicky and gets a kick from rice wine. It’s my favorite because it pairs extraordinarily well with my three favorite carb-rich dishes of all time. Slice it and toss with malagkit rice and Chinese sausage for kiampeng (like a sticky Chinese paella with peanuts); lay it gently between the folds of a steaming bun, add sauteed pickled veggies, chopped peanuts with a smattering of sugar and you have kuapao; let it socialize with beanspouts, salted native chicken, fresh steamed shrimps, maki noodles and the tastiest chicken broth for a cozy piping hot snack; or serve it Pinoy style with garlic rice, and fried or hard-boiled egg. Viola, 4 awesome dishes from one pork recipe.

Hi Lori! I can’t resist posting a comment even if the week is almost through. I super duper love pork. Pork makes me happy. It’s like sugar for me. After eating it, I get on a giddy pork-high mood. Among my favorites are chicharon, crispy pata, and porkchops. One of the best pork dishes that I have tried recently is the Smoked Bacon with a hint of orange flavor from Momo. Thanks for this MIYO! 🙂

i looove looove looove pork belly and pork fat. ^_^ I had this idea of a lechon sandwich (sandwich because my husband’s not a rice eater). It should have the crispy pork skin, a bit of pork fat and the meat in it, with gravy, tomatoes, lettuce and caramelized onion rings, cheese…. 🙂